LAST week’s curiosity came from the offices of Skipton Town Council and was a Facit mechanical calculator dating from the 1950s, as correctly guessed by a couple of people on our website and by email, including a retired member of the council office staff.

The company was an industrial corporation and maker of office products, based in Sweden. In 1932, the first ten-digit calculator was made; it was named FACIT and was a great success.

By the middle of the 1960s, electronic calculators arrived on the scene and eventually took over from the mechanical versions, once they became cheaper to make and to buy.

John Fletcher, of Sutton-in-Craven, contacted us to say it was indeed, a mechanical calculator. “My Chartered Accountant father used to have one in the office of the printing works where he worked, usually on the desk of his clerk. I occasionally accompanied my dad on a Saturday visit to his office, and had great fun punching big numbers into it and winding the handle to do massive multiplication’s. I can still recall the feel and the sound of the internal cogs whirring: “number crunching” was altogether more literal in the 1960s! Electronic calculators are nowhere near as much fun.”

Cath Cooney could also remember one being used in her first office job in the 1960s. “ I am glad I was never asked to learn how to use one, they looked very complicated to me,” she said.

Anne Lindsay, of Steeton, said: “I think it is a Data machine for collating information also the type of machine used for adding up years ago,possibly known as an Abacus.”

This week’s curiosity was spotted by a colleague while she was out walking, email us before 8am on Monday to news@cravenherald.co.uk